The witch doctor is an alchemical and spiritual master, skilled at not only simply brewing potions and alchemical goods, but at awakening the spirits of the ingredients that go into his goods. The powers that witch doctors revere are creatures of wild, ecstatic worship who demand dynamism from their servants.[1] The witch doctor's arcane magical art is formed from the ability to twist and turn nature through a crude yet effective science called juju. Creating curses and hexes is a specialty of the witch doctor. The witch doctor can make a deadly doll of wax or tallow containing a specific person's hair, skin or blood. He can affect the target with a harmful touch attack spell as long as the person is on the same plane. Using shadow and voodoo magic, the witch doctors can also cast spells without the use of dolls. By repeating old ritualistic chants, the witch doctor curses the target into feeling pain without physically harming it, only mentally. This might still prove deadly.

STANCES:

Doctor Stance: Increases all healing spells by 20% and range by 15 yd but reduces the critical hit chance by half on your damage spells.

Shadow Stance: Increases attack speed by 10% and reduces the healing reduction when in Spirit Realm by 15%.

Witch Stance: Allows the return of an extra 20% of Mojo from Voodoo spells but you cannot use your healing spells.

Specs:

Juju:A Juju spec WD at work can be unsettling, for he croons and chants to the herbs and animal parts that go into his brew, shaking a rattle to awaken them from their slumber, and sometimes even bursting into dance to appease them and make them favor him. The witch doctor's seething cauldron contains a hallucinogenic mixture of herbs, poisons, crushed insects and other noxious materials. Through potent rituals and potions, this spec is capable of heavy healing although to do that other allies may suffer, which makes it a bit harder to master. This spec is a healing spec based on the thin line between science and faith, the juju magic.

Shadow:Like other practitioners of voodoo, shadow hunters deal with the darker aspects of the spirit world. Brave practitioners of rituals and dark rites, shadow hunters tread a cautious line between darkness and light. Roughly spoken, shadow hunters are former headhunters who have gone deeply into the arts of voodoo and Loa. However, they have not forgotten their hunting skills, which makes a shadow hunter very dangerous in combat. They can stand far away from their enemies while throwing weapons at rapid speed, track down enemies with ease, and also heal themselves and allies. This spec brings a multitude of options that set it apart from other dps'ers. It's wide rnge of strategies requires a bit of practice but if used in tune with allies this can be as good as a supporter without loosing dps.

Damnation:All shaman and witch doctors know of ways to invoke spirits to do their bidding. The hexer (or hexxer) takes this craft to a new level, calling the wrath of spirits down upon his enemies. With a dance and a chant, he weakens and debilitates his foes. If a particular enemy becomes troublesome, he can bind a hostile spirit into an idol, delivering a permanent curse. Hexers are also benders of will, as they can control other lesser intellectual beings with their mind. These tricks can be fatal for several enemies of the witch doctor, not knowing whom of their allies to trust anymore. They are also able to sear through a targets mind and erase or create new memories as they please, causing the target to get confused and not knowing what is real. These rituals will also inflict massive pain onto the target. This spec is a negating support spec, based around cc curses and location based abilities but that are very powerful if used correctly.

Gameplay:

When you apply a Voodoo on someone, the Voodoo is only at 1/2 power. To maximize the power of the Voodoo, you need to apply a Mantra, which will add a new effect and refresh the Voodoo. The Mantra is a catalyst for the Voodoo and can only be applied over an active Voodoo. For Ex, When you cast Voodoo of Dancing Freaks and then Mantra: Cut, the Mantra will have added power along with the effects of Voodoo of Dancing Freaks. No two Mantras and Voodoos will act the same. Only one mantra and one voodoo can be active at the same time.

Healer special resource:

Good & Bad Mojo: The WD can have up to 5 of each and each time that the WD uses a healing or damaging ability, a stack will be sent to the target. Your most potent healing abilities will only affect targets with Good Mojo while some twisted ones will only affect targets with Bad Mojo. Targets can have up to 4 stacks of Good & Bad Mojo and they last 5 min.

DPS special resource:

Blessings of the Loa: critical strikes with abilities will grant 15 favor used for summoning a Loa blessing to the WD, depending on the type of ability used(requires 100):

Critical Healing abilities used on others- Lukou:Heals all your allies for 20% of their max health but makes you unable to benefit from healing from other players for 8 sec.

Critical Self-healing abilities- Dambala:Removes the CD on your next Biggest Fear, Shadow Blades or Healing Spirits used within 16 sec. If you don’t use any of these abilities then you will enter Shadow Realm free of cost

Critical damage over time abilities- Legba:Increases your movement and attack speed by 20% but reduces attack power by 10%.

Critical direct Damaging abilities- Xangô:You curse your target to take 1163 damage as electric whenever it attacks for the next 16 sec. However, if the target scores a critical hit you will take this damage instead

Critical Mantra abilities- Samedi: Deals 3489 nature damage on all enemies with an active Mantra, removing it but renewing the Voodoo.
Only affects forsaken, undead or death knights

Critical Voodoo abilities- Ogoun: Transforms the target in a frog for 16 sec. Works as a polymorph.

SUPPORT Special resource:

Mysticism: Each hex applied by the hexxer on a target or a mob of the same race and class will increase the power of the voodoo doll by granting significant and unique benefits to the play style of the hexxer until he decides to switch targets.

Allied targets effects:
Arms- Frenzied: increases damage dealt by 10% on the target.
Head-Enlightened: grants a 10% chance that the spell cast by the target is free.
Legs-Unstoppable: grants a 10% movement speed increase on the target.
Chest-Murderer: increases the target’s health by 10%.
Feet-Unbound: adds a stackable chance of 10% to resist snares on the target.

Enemy targets:
Arms-Controlled: grants 10% increased Mojo return from hexes active on it.
Head-Anguished: grants a 10% increased critical hit chance on spells cast against this target by any ally or the WD.
Legs-Decrepit: reduces target’s movement speed by 10% which can stack with other effects
Chest- Damned: Reduces target’s armor by 10%.
Feet-Misguided: Snares will last 3 more secs on the target

After getting the full body hexed, the Hexer has then access to the most potent spells of his spec, by creating an Idol/Fetish, which can be placed on the ground similar to a totem.

Primary Resource: Mojo-has a cap value of 50% of your health. It is only generated through active Voodoos. The WD gains 25% of the damage of the Voodoo as Mojo but when the Mantra is applied the Mojo stops generating.

Traits: Bloodletting-Passively increases all enraging durations by 2% for each 1% of health you miss.

GAMEPLAY EXPLANATION:

This class’s resource for me is really interesting and allows for a lot of creativity when it comes to gameplay.
Being Mojo your main resource, you will need to generate it through Voodoo spells. The problem is that these Voodoo spells are very weak if you leave them be without applying a Mantra as well. So you have a decision to make, either get as much Mojo from Voodoos as you can by letting it fade or apply a Mantra at any time you see fit to boost the Voodoo. This way, you can either choose between leaving slow dots or burst damage.

Bad & Good Mojo: This is the healing spec’s secondary resource. You will need to use basic healing abilities in order to generate Good Mojo charges which in turn will add a base % chance to leave your next target under Voodoo with stacks of Good Mojo. Some of your most potent abilities will then only affect targets with Good Mojo. But you have to be careful because if you happen to have Good Mojo charges active and you use damage Voodoos or Mantras on an enemy you may leave it with Good Mojo. The same process happens with Bad Mojo. You collect charges by using damaging abilities and then these will have a chance of being released when using Voodoos and Mantras.

Mysticism: The support spec’s secondary resource is for me, a simple, effective and fun way of improving the support skills of the player not only to make it stand out as a support spec but also to represent hexes as a powerful source of magic.
You start by cursing the target into a voodoo doll. As stated, this voodoo doll will last until you get it full body hex and even then 3 min more. Each time you apply a hex on it you gain an injury bonus depending on where you decide to apply it. Each part of the bod will add a different negative effect on the target. This strengthens even more the concept of the hexxer as being an evil caster that supports his allies by directly injuring their enemies.

Loa Blessings: This type of resource is very versatile and allows to perform effectively in many different situations. It all comes down to your critical strikes. Each critical strike you score will earn you favour to a determined Loa. When you reach 100 favour, a Loa is summoned, acting a powerful bless or curse.

Hmm, it's nicely thought out, but I see too much overlap with Shamans and possibly Spriest/locks/dks. Also I think the fact you have 2 specs being heavy on support won't work in the actual game when you start balancing. It's going to be the hybrid class problem all over again. We know from that that people don't want to be support only, and we can't have that level of support and have them deal the same amount of damage, cause that would make them mandatory and overpowered. I'd take a long hard look at those 2 support specs and try to make them more within reason compared to other classes's DPS specs.

This generally is what I feel when people post about new classes. I'd rather have Blizzard investing time and resources into developing the current classes further and creating unique gameplay and more or less equal possibility for each class than creating more of the same.

I don't hate the idea really, but witch doctors are just too embedded in troll society to make sense for other races. If you can create convincing lore background for why other races took up the role of a witch doctor, I'm all ears.

This generally is what I feel when people post about new classes. I'd rather have Blizzard investing time and resources into developing the current classes further and creating unique gameplay and more or less equal possibility for each class than creating more of the same.

Each expansion, balance is thrown back to a blank slate when they start adding new abilities, changing around talents and modifying the current system to keep things fresh. Classes rarely play the same from the beginning of an expansion to the end of it, and they're even less consistent from expansion to expansion. I don't think Balance is something that's maintained once achieved, rather it's something that's going to fluxuate every time new content and new bosses are designed.

Throwing in a new class will make it a bit more complex to maintain balance since it's more work, but the overall process shouldn't be much different than rebalancing most current classes.

I've long felt that this class idea wouldn't work for a variety of reasons. The main reasons being that Warlocks, Shadow Priests, and Shaman have this covered. It doesn't help that Troll witch doctors are largely considered Shaman to begin with. The other problem is that the style in which you presented this class is pretty deep in Troll society. You have to find a reason why other races would be performing something that is almost entirely based in troll society and culture.

Take my Ranger Class concept for example. I based it heavily on Elven culture and lore, and the races had to be limited because of that. Your concept is even more distinct, because it has a large amount of troll flavor that wouldn't make sense for other races to utilize.

You could stretch it to Orcs and maybe Tauren, Goblins and Forsaken but it really doesn't fit the Alliance.

They'd probably slap on some, "They're witch doctors but not really" like they did with Tauren paladins. "They're paladins, but really they're sunwalkers" kinda thing

Facts I've been told: Horde will never have paladins/Alliance will never have shaman, goblins/worgen/pandaren will never be playable races, demon hunters will never be a playable class, Blizzard will never sell in-game items for real world money, Blizzard will never have classic servers, the max level cap can't go past 100, there is a 0% chance allied races will release Jan 30 2018.

Might be tricky getting witch doctor stuff to work for an entire class, since as many have pointed out their usual set of skills is being used by existing classes.

Maybe some kind of Apothecary class fueled by alchemy more so than sorcery, with Witch Doctor as one spec focused on the magic side of things. That would make it open to other races - Forsaken have lots of apothecaries. 'Dark Apothecary' could cover the nastier side of things.

Gotta love all the real-world Loa references tho.

Originally Posted by Constellation

I found Tauren wielding the Light and Trolls wielding Druid magic just as unsettling. Not that this Witch Doctor stuff would happen but, yea...

Troll druids reminded me of the shape-shifting priests in Zul'Gurub - the trolls learning animal forms from the Loa was no different than night elves learning beast forms from various wild spirits, really.

I've long felt that this class idea wouldn't work for a variety of reasons. The main reasons being that Warlocks, Shadow Priests, and Shaman have this covered. It doesn't help that Troll witch doctors are largely considered Shaman to begin with. The other problem is that the style in which you presented this class is pretty deep in Troll society. You have to find a reason why other races would be performing something that is almost entirely based in troll society and culture.

Take my Ranger Class concept for example. I based it heavily on Elven culture and lore, and the races had to be limited because of that. Your concept is even more distinct, because it has a large amount of troll flavor that wouldn't make sense for other races to utilize.

Sub-classes like Ranger and Witch Doctor are both already covered by the current classes. A ranger is basically an elven marksmanship hunter, a troll witch doctor would be either a warlock, druid, shaman or priest.

Hmm, it's nicely thought out, but I see too much overlap with Shamans and possibly Spriest/locks/dks. Also I think the fact you have 2 specs being heavy on support won't work in the actual game when you start balancing. It's going to be the hybrid class problem all over again. We know from that that people don't want to be support only, and we can't have that level of support and have them deal the same amount of damage, cause that would make them mandatory and overpowered. I'd take a long hard look at those 2 support specs and try to make them more within reason compared to other classes's DPS specs.

Hey xskarma and thx for the reply! I know that at a first look this may sound like shamans but when I am done with the ability tables you will see otherwise =). In fact, that overlap with other classes issue has been the most famous defect pointed throughtout my class threads, which is why I definitely got that covered since the beginning of a new project. And you can check my other threads to become a believer as well lol.
I only have 1 spec based on support though, the shadow hunter spec is a dps. I do not consider it (nor would Blizz) a support because when I am done with its abilities, it will not suffer any dps dowgrade in favor of support abilities. The off-healing abilities are merely to flavour out and be truthful to the shadow hunter lore.
About the support class thing I have already developed a thread presenting my view of it. But simply put, support classes are viable has long as they can fend for themselves when alone with average dps, and can benefit their party without becoming mandatory, by giving them powerful support but weaker dps or heal or defense. its all a game of reducing B to improve A

I would agree with this. Though new classes sound appealing, I would much rather see a revamp of existing classes, models, and certain zones.

how about u start enjoying ur class and ur game instead of blaming others for the simple fact that u cannot accept imperfection? the world isn't perfect and so ins't this game!

---------- Post added 2013-02-20 at 12:36 AM ----------

Originally Posted by DomesticViolence

I'd like to see something new and original, that shares nothing in common with Diablo's classes.

We already have Warlocks in WoW, and I think Troll Warlocks fit the bill for Witch Doctor.

hmm no cause warlocks use demons and witch doctors use hexes and voodoo

---------- Post added 2013-02-20 at 12:38 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Ethes

This generally is what I feel when people post about new classes. I'd rather have Blizzard investing time and resources into developing the current classes further and creating unique gameplay and more or less equal possibility for each class than creating more of the same.

people should start learning to accept that nothing is perfect and you would be much happier and the game would feel much funnier...

My only problem is I can't see any Alliance races actually being witch doctors. And I only really see Trolls being them on the Horde. I have nothing against a witch doctor class per say, but feel that that archetype can already be played up through troll shamans or priests. Not to say you couldn't make a class out of this, but any race beyond trolls being one is a huge stretch.